Judge: Yankees keep quiet on negotiations

Either on Sunday morning or by Monday morning at the latest, Aaron Judge will officially become a free agent.

At that point, the Yankees hope their contract talks with their biggest star will go better than the last time they negotiated.

General manager Brian Cashman on Friday reiterated the club’s desire to keep Judge in pinstripes, but declined to comment on whether the Yankees had engaged with the likely AL MVP’s camp since the end of the season.

“We’d love to be able to bring Aaron Judge back,” Cashman said at Yankee Stadium in an end-ofseason press conference. “The career path he’s currently on is Hallof-Fame like. [There would be] nothing better than to have him continue to man right field for us and impact us both on and off the field the way he has thus far.

“We’ll have the conversations as promised and see where they take us. But he’s put himself in a great position to have a lot of choices.”

Before Judge’s self-imposed deadline of Opening Day, he turned down a seven-year, $213.5 million extension offer. Then he went out and hit an American League-record 62 home runs while chasing a Triple Crown and often putting the Yankees on his back on the way to a division title.

Judge, who will become a free agent the morning after the World Series ends, has previously stated his wish to remain a Yankee for life. But after the Yankees were swept in the ALCS by the Astros, he spoke of his tenure in pinstripes in the past tense and said, “We’ll see what happens,” with regards to his free agency.

The Giants, Dodgers and others could join the Yankees in trying to land Judge, who figures to try to break Mike Trout’s position-player record of a $36 million average annual value.

Cashman declined to say whether

the Yankees have a hard number they won’t exceed, but credited Judge, who will turn 31 in April, for betting on himself and sang his praises.

“He checks all the boxes,” Cashman said. “The box of, ‘Does he help you win games on the field?’ first and foremost. And: Will he do so moving forward? There’s no guarantees in terms of health in any of these situations when you make these commitments on players. He’s a fan favorite. He’s respected within that clubhouse. He goes about his business as good as you possibly can. He’s an elite performer and is one of the game’s best, if not the best, player. Those are the type you want to retain and have as long as you possibly can.

“Ultimately Hal Steinbrenner will collect all the information from the industry standpoint, where people are in free agency — things can get pretty crazy. Then obviously factor in everything else that are non-baseball related. What drives our fan base, showing up and supporting us. [Steinbrenner] wants to make them happy. … Hopefully we’ll have some positive conversations that lead to the outcome that we want. But we’ll see.”

Whether or not the Yankees can re-sign Judge will dictate the rest of their offseason, so Cashman said it would be “optimal” to get a deal done early. But he admitted that Judge will “dictate the dance steps to his free agency.”

If those negotiations do not ultimately bring Judge back to The Bronx, the Yankees would be hard-pressed trying to replace him, especially in an offseason when the next-best free-agent outfielder might be Brandon Nimmo.

“All I’ll say is of course I hope he’s back and a Yankee forever,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I can’t think of a better guy that you’d want to be leading your team and organization. Hopefully that all works out. But my conversations with him now are just communicating with him through the winter and hoping that it works out. But obviously that’s above me and that’s gotta happen over time.”